LAND 400 Phase 2 Mounted Combat Reconnaissance Capability

Army is searching for an ASLAV replacement to suit an increasingly dangerous and digitised battlefield after a tender was announced at Puckapunyal on February 19.

About 225 new vehicles will be acquired “military-off-the-shelf” and may be modified to suit Australian conditions.

Chief of Army Lieutenant General David Morrison said the new vehicles were planned to start entering service by 2021 to suit new fighting conditions.

“The modern battle-space is a much more lethal environment than it was when the ASLAV came into service in the mid-1990s,” he said. “The demands that are placed on us will mean we will say goodbye to the ASLAV and replace it with a more modern vehicle that will provide those essential capabilities well into the 2030s.”

Greater firepower, protection and mobility would be key elements the new vehicles, according to the CA.

“It will be an integral part of the armoured cavalry regiments that are now in all of our brigades,” he said. “It will also be able to be a digital hub in a digital battle-space providing essential communication and passage of intelligence now and into the coming decades.”

Major General Paul McLachlan, Head of Land Systems, said the new vehicles would need to suit increasing threats.

“We’re looking for a bigger, heaver vehicle to provide extra protection,” he said. “We’re looking for a networked platform that will be able to accommodate all of the modern sensors that are now available to us.”

But the new acquisition wouldn’t be a simple vehicle replacement, according to Maj-Gen McLachlan.

“We’re going to be getting a new system, not just a platform,” he said. “We know there are quite a number of platforms that will do what we need performance-wise but it’s actually about what we can put on them, those systems and integration to bring a real advantage to a soldier of the future.”

The new vehicle will need variants to perform reconnaissance, command and control, joint fires, surveillance, ambulance, repair and recovery roles.

They will be acquired as part of Land 400 that will also replace the M113 armoured personnel carriers, provide manoeuvre support vehicles and an integrated training system.

ASLAV replacements fall under Phase 2 of Land 400 and will be delivered in alignment with Plan Beersheba’s force generation cycle.